I have mentioned the former plant managers that I was so privileged to have had to opportunity to work for these pioneers in safety.  These were Chemical Engineers, but they were safety geniuses before their time.  In 1996, I went to work for Dale Fannin, and I had no idea what I was in for.  In two years, he taught me more about Safety Metrics than I have learned in the 20 years since. ...

INTRODUCTION Recent inspection programs for metallic pressure containment vessels and tanks have revealed cracking and damage in a considerable number of the vessels inspected. Safety and hazard evaluations of pressure vessels, as also presented in OSHA Instruction PUB 8-1.5, need to consider the consequences of a leakage or a rupture failure of a vessel.  Two consequences result from a complete...

Twas the night before Christmas,  when all through the house   Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.   When down through the chimney, all covered with soot Came the “Spirit of Fire,” an ugly galoot. His eyes glowed like embers; his features were stern  As he looked all around him for something to burn.  What he saw made him grumble-his anger grew higher  For there...

The Incident: In September 2000, a steel lecture bottle located within a hood in a UNR laboratory ruptured with explosive force. The explosion occurred at night and no one was present in the laboratory at the time of the incident. There was, however, significant damage to the lab hood. The gas cylinder contained methyl nitrite (CH3ONO), which had been synthesized and transferred to the cylinder by...

 

On Tuesday, April 8, 1997, at approximately 8:59 a.m., a 5,700-gallon hydrochloric acid (HCl) storage tank ruptured during filling. The failure of the HCl tank caused a significant portion of its liquid contents (which totaled about 4,800 gallons of 31% HCl) to suddenly surge over the secondary containment. The force of the liquid also caused a break in the secondary containment wall. Witnesses described...

The use of risk controls or barriers to protect the people from hazards is a core principle of safety. Barriers are employed to serve two purposes: to prevent the release of hazardous energy and to mitigate harm in the event hazardous energy is released Energy is defined broadly as used here and includes multiple forms, for example:  Kinetic, biological, acoustical, chemical, electrical, mechanical,...

Safety Management Systems (SMS) was developed to integrate safety as part of an organization’s management of safety performance. The benefits of process-based management systems are a well-established component of quality performance. As organizations and the technologies they employ became more complex and diverse, and the rate of change in the pace of societal expectations, technical innovations,...

An organizational event-causal story developed by James Reason starts with the organizational factors: Strategic decisions, Generic organizational processes – forecasting, budgeting, allocating resources, planning, scheduling, communicating, managing, auditing, etc. These processes are colored and shaped by the corporate culture, unspoken attitudes, and unwritten rules concerning how the organization...

This is one of the most commonly misunderstood RMP/PSM compliance issues for facilities that use rail cars as storage tanks and or use “tube trailers” as storage tanks. EPA has been clear since 1998 on how these rail cars that are hooked up to the process and those that are “stored on spurs” are to be managed in regards to RMP threshold determination and “definition of...

Clarifications and Interpretations of the PSM Standard The guidance contained in this appendix is provided for compliance assistance. This appendix contains clarifications agreed to in a settlement agreement dated April 5, 1993, between OSHA, the United Steelworkers of America, the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers International Union, and the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO....